It has heretofore been common to provide sorter feeder systems which comprise a tray or slat sorter conveyor. Typical examples of such systems are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,753,976, 3,823,811 and 4,245,734 and UK patent application GB 2145387A. In the aforementioned UK patent application, a feeder conveyor directs manually pre-oriented articles against a V-shaped stop so that the articles are temporarily stopped and centered. Thereafter the stop is retracted and the article is delivered to the sorter conveyor.
Among the objectives of the present invention are to provide a sorter feeder system which will automatically--i.e. without human assistance or intervention--singulate, orient, accelerate and convey an article onto a sorter conveyor for the purpose of maximizing the volume of articles conveyed and reducing the speed of the sorter conveyor and induction conveyor.
In accordance with the invention, a sorter feeder system for conveying an article onto a moving tray or slat sorter conveyor comprises a feeder belt conveyor intermittently operable to deliver articles singularly to a roller lift table. The articles must be delivered singulated, however, the articles do not have to be on only one side of the feeder belt, as if skewed into position. The angularity of the table rollers carry and urge the article against a continuously running belt side guide toward a swing blade stop, all of which causes said article to assume a preferred orientation. The roller lift table is then lowered and the stop gate swings clear, so that the article engages a continuously operating multistrand induction belt conveyor positioned at an angle to the sorter conveyor. The induction belt conveyor accelerates and conveys the article in the predetermined orientation onto a designated tray of the sorter conveyor. By aligning the shortest dimension of the largest carried article with the direction of motion of the tray sorter, and by using multiple units of the present invention, the maximum volume of articles per tray sorter is achieved. Position sensors such as photo-electric sensors, limit switches, proximity switches, and the like, are used to sense the position of the article and activate the various mechanical motions via microprocessor controlled electropneumatic control means.